here is the site

BEDE SAYS:

Kelly is a guy who, in the past 12 months, has shown the courage and innovation to experiment with design. More and more guys on the tour are doing the same.
I’m not going to be wheeling anything radical, but my long-time shaper at Mt. Woodgee, Wayne McKewen, and I have been playing around with our smaller wave equipment over the past month or so.

The catalyst was Dane Reynolds’ outstanding surfing at last year’s Hurley Pro at Trestles and in Europe.

Wayne and I are on both on the same wavelength and when I got back he said out loud what I was already thinking: “Did you see that board Dane was riding? We gotta take a look at that.”

Dane called the board design something like a “dumpster diver”. We like to call them “bullets”.

Wayne, myself and Woody (a cool guy who owns the shaping machine we use if I get pre-shapes) started working on a couple of our own designs similar to what Dane has been riding.

The concept works best for me in the 5’7″ to 5’10″ range and I’ve had some amazing boards off it!

I’ll still be taking on tour and using my normal handcrafted 6’2″s off Wayne, but if it’s around two or three foot, the ‘Bullets’ just go so good. I’ll definitely have a couple in my board bag on tour this year.

I had plenty of opportunity to test the boards over January on the Gold Coast.
It was a poor month of waves but with it being so small I’ve been able to work on the repertoire you need nowadays for anything under head high.

The Bullet has definitely helped me there. They just fly and are so good for airs.

The swell finally kicked up recently and we had some fun waves at Kirra the other day where I rode a 5’8″ out there that just went insane.

I still think they work best in beachies around two or three foot but there are also possibilities there in slightly bigger surf too.

What I like about the Bullet design is that not only is it great for airs, it does really good carves too.

Surfing is just getting more and more radical every year, so riding these boards will help me with my airs and other new school stuff.

With the calendar ticking into February, we’ve moving into cyclone season here on the Gold Coast and there has been some good swell which is a positive sign ahead of the Quiky Pro.

I’ve had a solid training month through January. With no decent surf at all really for the whole of the month, other than testing the Bullet, I’ve been ripping into training with Gary “Kong” Elkerton.

I love how ‘Elko’ always pushes me to my limits. It’s comforting to know you have a really good fitness base at the start off the year to set yourself up for the whole tour.

From here, it’s just a matter of topping up that fitness base as necessary throughout the season.

With the opening event here at home just around the corner, I’m feeling good and itching to get that competition singlet on again.

Until next time,
Bede

to see more photos of nate and that day CLICK HERE

“how many boards are there in the bag”

“two”

“i need to check the bag sir to confirm”

“why there are 2 boards in there and they are packed well with a cardboard shell”

“i still need to check it – you have 4 boards in here sir”

“oh i do? ok well charge me then for the extra boards” i said cursing in my head.

“we do not accept bags with more than 2 boards”

“what do you mean?”

“i mean we can not take your bag – in fact if you had three boards i would charge you 125.00 for the 2 boards and then another 150.00 for the 3rd board AND your bag would fly stand by.

WHAT – WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!!!???? – “charge me the money and put my 4 boards that are in the bag that are very light and well packed on to the plane lady”

“sorry sir we do not except bags with more than 2 boards – it is a 2 board max per bag”

so obviously i freaked out and starting yelling – she got the supervisor – same deal – so with 10 minutes left to check in she is giving me options like ” have some one pick the other 2 boards up” and ” have someone bring you another bag” -

“lady i am at lax – hello- hard enough to get a ride here at 11pm at night and now your telling me that i need to phone my girlfriend and have her turn around from wherever she is at on her way back to san clemente to come  and grab 2 of our boards – YOU’Re  HIGH!”

“i am sorry sir we do not except bags with more than 2 boards – if you want to take 3 boards i will charge you an extra 150.00 and it will fly stand by”

“you know that if i had 2 funboards in here that the bag would be bigger and weigh a lot more than these 4 boards combined right? you know that?

“sir we do not except bags with more than 2 boards”

“so what the hell are you saying what possible options do i have? – do you have a locker?”

“no”

i thought a second ” here is whats going to happen i am gonna take 2 boards out and tape them together and send them through and if they even get the slightest ding on them your paying for it – you got it!!!”

“nope sir that is not what will happen because if you want those boards on this flight then you are gonna sign a waiver stating that we are not held liable for any damages because the boards were not packed properly”

“how much time do i have to do this to make my flight”

“7 minutes”

“you guys suck – here is our passports – check us in while i wrap 2 of my boards with no protection for 130.00″

so here i am in the middle of the airport flipping my bag open and trying to tape 2 boards together. guy walks by me looks down and can tell that i am doing something i dont want to be doing “are we having fun yet” he says to me.

“yeah man – yeah having a blast”

so we pay our 125.00 for one bag with 2 boards in it and then 125.00 for 2 boards taped together and totally unprotected. we made the flight no problem and i finally kind of calmed down.

we get there and would’nt you know it – the 2 boards taped together show up perfect – not a scratch on them. i can not believe it.

soooooo…………… maybe i just fell into some badluck there but man, like i said earlier, extra money for boards were the least of my worries – i almost could not even take the boards at all!!!! so plan wisely i guess.